Awkwafina and Reggie Watts Added to The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge

SpongeBob is hitting the big screen once more with The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge, a new animated movie coming in 2020, and now its added two more stars to the voice cast. Awkwafina (Oceans 8) and Reggie Watts (The Late Late Show with James Corden) have joined the cast, and Hans Zimmer will be creating the score with an original song by Ali Dee. The SpongeBob Movie will also be the first SpongeBob film to feature completely computer-generated animation, as the last film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was a mix of CG and hand-drawn animation (via THR).

Other details about the upcoming film haven’t been released yet, though we do know this is an origin story according to Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria, who compared the film in some ways to It’s a Wonderful Life at the VIEW Conference.

“For the first time ever, we’re going to get to the origin of how little SpongeBob met the rest of the Bikini Bottom gang at summer camp,” Soria said. “The film’s opening will take place at Camp Coral when all of our favorite characters meet for the first time.”

SpongeBob continues to be one of the more popular animated characters, and even made an appearance during the most recent Super Bowl halftime show, though that wasn’t as big an appearance as everyone would’ve liked.

The last few movies in the franchise have also done quite well for Paramount. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004 was created for $30 million and brought in $140 million worldwide, while 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was made for $74 million and brought in over $325 million worldwide.

The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge will be directed by Tim Hill with a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, and Michael Kvamme. The film stars Tom Kenny (SpongeBob), Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs), Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick), Roger Bumpass (Squidward), Jill Talley (Karen), Mr. Lawrence (Plankton), and Carolyn Lawrence (Sandy).

The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge hits theaters in July of 2020.